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Tag: Australia

Australian wildfire ordeal to worsen Saturday

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , ,

Hot, dry, and windy weather in southeastern Australia on Saturday could cause the bushfires to spread even more rapidly

fires in East Gippsland
One of the fires in the East Gippsland region of Victoria, December 30, 2019. Photo by Ned Dawson for Victoria State Government.

One of the first clues that the bushfire season in eastern Australia was going to be abnormal was when the 737 air tanker just purchased by the government began to be used on a fairly regular basis shortly after it arrived during the southern hemisphere winter. It made its first drop on August 8, 2019 more than three months before summer began.

Since that first drop the intensity of the fire season slowly grew during the rest of the winter and fall, and by the end of November was in full swing showing signs of what has become an unprecedented fire season.

The hot, dry, and windy conditions predicted for Saturday could make a bad situation worse. At Canberra, the capital, the wind will shift 180 degrees in the morning to come out of the northwest at 20 mph. The temperature will max out under mostly sunny skies at 105F with the relative humidity in the lower teens.

Based on the expected conditions, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service is recommending that holiday makers leave certain areas before burning conditions become even more dangerous on Saturday. Some of the “Tourist Leave Zones” include Khancoban, Snow Monaro, Shoalhaven, Batlow, Wondalga, and South Coast.

Here is an example:

The fire situation has escalated to the point where thousands of residents and vacationers were forced at the end of the decade to flee to the coast where they turned around to watch as the fire followed, burning until it ran out of fuel at the sand.

Navy ships have been mobilized to help feed and evacuate the evacuees, but it’s not as easy as it might seem. One of the first tasks is to determine who among the thousands at Mallacoota, Victoria, are willing and able to climb a ladder from a small boat up to the much larger Navy vessel built to carry 300 soldiers and 23 tanks. It is expected to transport about 800 evacuees. Those who can’t board the ship and still want to leave, may be removed from the burnt-over area by helicopters, but visibility degraded by smoke could make flying difficult.

Since Australia does not have a central point for collecting and distributing information about widespread bushfires, exact numbers are difficult to obtain, but on the continent between July and December approximately 12 million acres (4.8 million hectares) burned, the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined.

In New South Wales alone as of January 1, 2020, the numbers of destroyed structures include 916 homes, 73 facilities, and 2,107 outbuildings.

There have been approximately 17 deaths related to the fires in Australia, including three firefighters.

Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons on Tuesday described the crisis as the “worst bushfire season on record”.

Meanwhile, two senior members of the government decided it was a good time to take vacations. The New South Wales Emergency Services Minister, David Elliot, came back home from the UK shortly after his personal trip was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald. Earlier he had said, according to the newspaper, that he would return “if the bushfire situation should demand it.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison cut his Hawaii vacation short following intense criticism.

Map fires and areas under threat Eastern Victoria
Map of fires and areas under threat in Eastern Victoria, Australia Jan. 2, 2019. Click here to download a high resolution version of the map.

Video shot by evacuees on the beach as fire burns to the coast in New South Wales

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories WildfireTags , 2 Comments on Video shot by evacuees on the beach as fire burns to the coast in New South Wales
fire Evacuees on beach Rosedale, NSW
Evacuees on the beach at Rosedale, NSW. Screenshot from the video below.

Residents and visitors in the New South Wales coastal town of Rosedale (map) had to evacuate to the beach on New Years Eve as a bushfire spread into the area.

Description of the Guardian video below:

Madeleine Kelly, 17, and her family were among people staying in Rosedale, a tiny coastal town 300km south of Sydney, when they were forced to flee to the beach ahead of huge bushfires on New Year’s Eve. The fires destroyed numerous properties in the town as horrified onlookers watched. The fire’s onslaught was halted when the wind changed, but people remained on the beach for hours afterwards before they could be evacuated to Moruya showgrounds by bus through the devastated town.

U.S. and Canada send additional firefighters to Australia

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories WildfireTags , 10 Comments on U.S. and Canada send additional firefighters to Australia

Canadian fire authorities expect to have 87 firefighters in Australia by January 4

BLM fire employees en route Australia
18  BLM fire management employees were en route to Australia January 1, 2020. Photo via @BLMUtah.

UPDATED at 10:15 a.m. PST January 2, 2020

As we learn about other firefighters from North America traveling to Australia, we will post the information here.

Canadian firefighters Australia
Wildfire personnel from Canada arrived in Brisbane, Australia December 31, 2019. Photo by Canada Down Under.

Originally published at 3:07 p.m. PST January 2, 2020.

Both the United States and Canada have sent additional firefighters to assist with wildfires in Australia after the first wave of 42 arrived down under around December 5, 2019. Another 40 or so arrived before Christmas and both countries are now working out the logistics to deploy more personnel.

The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise announced on their Situation Report December 27 that a total of 32 fire personnel had been deployed to Australia from the United States.

From CBC.ca, December 30, 2019:

Stephen Tulle, duty officer with the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, said a group of 15 set out for Queensland Monday, while another 21 will fly out later in the week.

The contingent of Canadian wildfire specialists stationed in Queensland and New South Wales will reach 87 by Jan. 4, he said.

This is the first time Canada has made a co-ordinated effort to send firefighters to Australia, although crews from Down Under have visited here and were vital in helping British Columbia handle widespread wildfires in 2017 and 2018, Tulle said.

Canadian firefighters AustraliaOn December 31, 2019 Andrew Crisp of the Victoria Emergency Management Commission in Australia, said they have ordered additional fire aviation specialists from US and Canada, and firefighters “who can work in remote and arduous conditions”.

The U.S. is putting together another wave. On December 31 a 20-person hand crew was being assembled on the Angeles National Forest in Southern California. Other firefighters from the U.S. may also be deployed. We will update this article as additional information becomes available.

Bushfires burn into communities in Australia

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories WildfireTags , , 1 Comment on Bushfires burn into communities in Australia

Two residents have been killed and dozens of structures destroyed

pyrocumulus clouds over bushfires New South Wales
Extremely large pyrocumulus clouds tower over bushfires in New South Wales and spread over the Pacific Ocean. Sentinel-2A image, December 31, 2019, processed by @andrewmiskelly.

Very large bushfires continue to rapidly spread through areas of New South Wales and Victoria in southeast Australia, leaving behind hundreds of thousands of burned hectares, blackened forests, and destroyed structures in their wakes.

Victoria
Authorities in Victoria have confirmed that at least 43 structures have been destroyed in the Gippsland region where more than 400,000 hectares (988,000  acres) have burned. Many of the structures were in the Sarsfield and Buchan areas.

The military is being activated to assist firefighters and the public. The Australian Defense Force will deploy Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters, as well as fixed-wing aircraft and Navy vessels for firefighting support and evacuations. Authorities were considering using helicopters to fly in food and other supplies to people cut off by fires and road closures. Over the last few weeks fire aviation specialists from the United States and Canada have arrived in Australia help manage aircraft.

Mallacoota bushfire
People sought refuge at the Mallacoota boat ramp as the fire approached the town. Instagram by @travelling_aus_family

In Mallacoota, a coastal community popular with vacationers, an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 people were directed to evacuate and take refuge on the beach. They endured dense smoke that turned day into night as the fire spread into the outskirts of the town, sparing most of the buildings as it passed by the area.

Map warning areas bushfires in Victoria
Map showing warning areas near bushfires in Victoria, Australia. The areas with a black line and grey fill are designated for evacuation. The red lines indicate “emergency warning”. The width of the largest emergency warning area is approximately 204km (110 miles), east to west. Map by Vic Emergency, Jan. 1, 2020 (local time).

Thousands of people have been left without power in East Gippsland, which AusNet said may not be restored for days.

Country Fire Authority chief officer Steve Warrington said the main fire front has passed the town of Corryong in northeast Victoria near the NSW border after destroying an unknown number of homes on the outskirts of community. An evacuation center was set up at Corryong College.

One resident described the situation in Corryong as “an absolute mess. Fires are everywhere but the town was standing strong.”

New South  Wales
At least 40 homes appear to have been destroyed by fires in Conjola Park on the south coast of NSW as the fire burned through on December 31. Many residents fled to the beach.

An unknown number of structures have burned in Cobargo, including some of those along Princes Highway, the main street going through the town.

Cobargo, New South Wales before fire
Before the fire. A scene on the Princes Highway, the main street going through Cobargo, New South Wales. Google Streets image.
Cobargo, New South Wales fire
The same area after the fire, December 31, 2019. Princes Highway, the main street going through Cobargo, New South Wales.

Two men, a father and son, were killed in the Cobardgo area where they had remained to defend their property. Patrick Salway, 29 and his father Robert, 63, perished at the family property at Wandella, about 10 kilometers northwest of Cobargo as the 82,000-hectare (202,000-acre) Badja Forest Road fire approached Monday night.

Police said Patrick’s mother discovered the men’s bodies when she returned to the burnt-out property Tuesday morning.

An excerpt from an article at the Australian Broadcasting Network:

Susanne Lewington, who owns the Breakfast Creek Vineyard in Bermagui, near Cobargo, was forced to evacuate her property at 5 am. She is now at a shelter down the road and does not know if the devastation has reached her property.

“It’s very eerie down here, it’s really smoky, there’s ash everywhere,” she said. “I have no idea if we’ve lost our property. If we have a wind change it could go because we’ve very close to the creek and we’re close to the forest. The sky was black, we only got daylight a few hours ago.”

She said the drought had left her property without any significant water bodies that may have helped dampen the blaze.

“There’s not much left on the property, about 100 ducks, four cattle and 10 sheep, that’s all we’ve got left because I had to sell the rest due to the drought,” she said. “We’ve got no water left so we weren’t able to defend.”

Bushfire overruns New South Wales engine crew

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories WildfireTags , , , 1 Comment on Bushfire overruns New South Wales engine crew

Video shows the truck surrounded by fire

engine crew burnover NSW
A NSW engine crew is overrun by a bushfire. Screenshot from the video below. Po

The engine crew from Fire and Rescue New South Wales Station 509 Wyoming recorded the video below showing the moment their truck was overrun by a fire south of Nowra, NSW. The crew was forced to shelter in their truck as the fire front passed through. The video was posted by NSW Rural Fire Service December 31, 2019 local time.

More information about the December 30 firefighter fatality in New South Wales

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories WildfireTags , ,

Commissioner NSW RFS

On December 31 Shane Fitzsimmons, Commissioner of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, provided more information about the December 30 death of firefighter Samuel McPaul.